A proposed development featuring a large hotel and two new restaurants is under review by the Town of Leesburg — and assuming it comes to fruition, it will be located in an area that is seeing a lot of growth.
The project is currently called Liberty at Russell Branch. It’s slated to be built on a parcel of land tucked between the Village at Leesburg and the CMX Village 14 Cinemas on one side and the Lowe’s Home Improvement store on the other side. That’s on the north side of Russell Branch Parkway.
Plans submitted to the town call for an 80,000 s.f., 140-room hotel, plus two restaurants. It appears that the developers originally envisioned two sit-down style, full service restaurants, but the proposal was amended to make one of the restaurants a drive-thru instead.
It’s interesting to note some of the brands “lightly” attached to this project. Whether these are the actual brands that come remains to be seen.
In the documents, the two restaurants shown do not have any names attached, but one is clearly an Olive Garden and the other is clearly a Longhorn Steakhouse — right down to the horned logo on the side of the building. Both of these restaurant brands are part of the Dardin family of restaurants.
Of course, neither of those brands is a drive-thru — so even if those names are accurate — it’s likely one of them is no longer part of the plans.
The hotel is shown with the both Fairfield Inn & Suites and Townplace Suites on the side of the rendering. These are both Marriott hotel brands and the company has indeed started building single locations with both styles of hotel.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites is more of a traditional, short stay hotel, while Townplace Suites offers amenities for guests that may be checking in for extended stays.
The plans note all the images are just for “illustrative” purposes and not necessarily the final way the buildings will appear or the potential tenants therein. But at least it gives us an idea of what is in store for the area — if and when the project goes through.